New York Rangers Fight Night at the Garden; frontier justice served (with video)
Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen to New York Rangers Fight Night at the Garden! You could almost hear Michael Buffer’s signature “Let’s Get Ready to Ruuuuummmmmbbbbbllllleeee!” before puck drop.
The NHL got what it wanted as the New York Rangers and Washington Capitals decided retribution could only be found on the ice. After the NHL DoPS failed to suspend Tom Wilson for his goon tactics on Monday, the Rangers opted for frontier justice.
Wild times at MSG for New York Rangers
It was a wild day at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Scratch that. It’s been a wild three days that started with Wilson going wild on Rangers star players, eventually leading to a season-ending body slam of Artemi Panarin. The matter was made worse when the NHL DoPS only fined Wilson, which led to the Rangers owner, James Dolan to releases a statement asking for George Parros to step down.
Oh wait, you thought I was finished.
Yesterday, Dolan fired both his President and General Managers. A move that had league executives texting some reporters with “HOLY S**T!”. Ownership claimed that the dismissals were solely performance based but since both John Davidson and Jeff Gorton wanted nothing to do with the statement, many feel that it still played a role. Both old school hockey guys, they were not aware of the letter and disagreed with its release.
The dismissals are said to be performance based with them being contemplated over the last week. James Dolan was not satisfied with progress and was possibly looking to just replace Gorton but it appears JD was a casualty as well.
New York Rangers Fight Night at the Garden vs Capitals
By the way, there was still a game to played with retribution on the mind of every guy in a blue jersey.
The game started with a line brawl. Next, Brendan Smith went straight after Tom Wilson on his first shift. That was followed by Ryan Strome fighting Lars Ellers, and capped by Anthony Bitetto and Michael Raffl. Six fights before five minutes were even played. The league needs to own the debacle that looked like it came out of the movie Youngblood.
Chippy played continued for the remainder of the period. Tom Wilson was removed from the game with an upper-body injury to start the second period which calmed things down. However, another potentially suspendible incident occurred when Pavel Buchnevich high-sticked Anthony Mantha right in the face. He was kicked out of the game and may get a call from George Parros who met with both teams before last night’s contest. Obviously that didn’t have the desired effect.
From a hockey game perspective, (yes – one did break out) Alexis Lafreniere and Morgan Barron each scored. TJ Oshie mourning the loss of his father notched a hat trick a day after laying him to rest. A beautiful hockey story that was overshadowed by the NHL’s inaction action Wilson.
NYR Postgame Notes
- The Rangers have had six of their own draft picks register their first career NHL point this season (Miller, Lafrenière, Reunanen, Kravtsov, Jones, and Barron) which is tied for the most in franchise history (also in 1979-80 and 1980-81).
- Zac Jones notched two assists and posted a plus-two rating.
- Morgan Barron recorded his first career NHL goal/point and tied for the team-high with three hits.
- Alexis Lafrenière tallied a goal. He has registered a point in five of the last seven games, recording six points (three goals, three assists) over the span. Lafrenière has also tallied 12 points (seven goals, five assists) in the last 23 games.
Next Game: Tomorrow, Thursday, May 6 at Boston (7:00 p.m. ET – TV: MSG Network)
Notes courtesy NYR
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